1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a method for controlling the same, in particular, relates to an information processing apparatus for managing a device, a client machine, which are provided on a network, and software required for printing by using an administration server, and a program for controlling the same. Hereinafter, the term “client machine” as used herein is referred to simply as “client”. Print data-forming software installed on a client is so-called a printer driver, and hereinafter is also referred to as “driver”.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a network printing environment provided with a client, a print server, a printer, and an administration server for managing these has been proposed. A printing method using the printer driver corresponding to a shared printer on the print server and the driver corresponding to the network printer object is known. There is another printing method using a printer driver that corresponds to the local printer object locally connected to the client. The technique for forming a network printer object corresponding to a shared printer on the client is disclosed, for example, in “Windows Point and Print Technical Overview”, Microsoft, Published: Mar. 21, 2003, Update: Nov. 20, 2006.
On the client, for example, when the printer driver corresponding to the local printer object is updated, its printer object may overwrite the printer driver corresponding to the network printer object. Consequently, the versions and the like between the print server-side printer driver corresponding to the shared printer object and the printer driver corresponding to the network printer object may become inconsistent.
As a result, printing via the print server may be disabled from the client using the network printer, or incorrect print results may be obtained. Therefore, a printing system environment cannot be appropriately maintained in the prior art, resulting in problems associated with maintenance and management.